Saudi Arabia (Homefront universe)
The Saudi Arabia (i/ˌsɔːdiː əˈreɪbiə/, i/ˌsaʊ-/), officially known as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is an Arab state in Afro-Eurasia constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula. With a land area of approximately 7,160,878 km2 (2,764,432 sq mi), Saudi Arabia is geographically the largest country in Afro-Eurasia, the fourth-largest state in Asia, and the ninth-largest sovereign state in the world. Saudi Arabia is bordered by Jordan and Iraq to the north, Kuwait to the northeast, Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates and the Islamic Republic of Iran to the east, Oman to the southeast, and Yemen to the south. It is separated from Israel and Egypt by the Gulf of Aqaba. It is only one of two nations with both a Red Sea coast and a Persian Gulf coast, and most of its terrain consists of arid inhospitable desert or barren landforms. The country has attracted criticism for its lack of democratic freedom, the status of women in its society, and its usage of capital punishment. The area of modern-day Saudi Arabia formerly consisted of four distinct regions: Hejaz, Najd, and parts of Eastern Arabia (Al-Ahsa) and Southern Arabia ('Asir). The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was founded in 1932 by Ibn Saud. He united the four regions into a single state through a series of conquests beginning in 1902 with the capture of Riyadh, the ancestral home of his family, the House of Saud. Saudi Arabia has since been an absolute monarchy, effectively a hereditary dictatorship governed along Islamic lines. The ultra-conservative Wahhabism religious movement within Sunni Islam has been called "the predominant feature of Saudi culture", with its global spreading largely financed by the oil and gas trade. Saudi Arabia is sometimes called "the Land of the Two Holy Mosques" in reference to Al-Masjid al-Haram (in Mecca), and Al-Masjid an-Nabawi (in Medina), the two holiest places in Islam. The Kingdom has a total population of 318.46 million. The capital city was formerly Riyadh, until it was destroyed by weapons of mass destruction deployed by the Islamic Republic of Iran during the Oil Wars in 2016. Jeddah became the new capital city at the end of the Oil Wars. In the early 2010s, after U.S. forces which had been stationed in the Middle East due to the War on Terror were withdrawn from the region, the Islamic Republic of Iran began to expand its military and economic capabillites as well as build new influence over the region. Due to the already extreme tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and wanting to establish its own sphere of influence, Saudi Arabia began to challenge their Iranian counterparts by purchasing large amounts of modern weaponry from the United States. The Islamic Republic of Iran succesfully tested its first nuclear weapon in 2014, and the succesful Iranian nuclear weapons program quickly prompted Saudi Arabia to develop its own weapons of mass destruction. In 2015, the Saudi military forces moved into Iraq to occupy southern Iraq in order to protect Sunni Muslims from sectarian violence and challenge Iran's occupation of northern Iraq. Saudi Arabia also established a military coalition with Syria, Jordan, Egypt, and Turkey, the Holy Arab Alliance. The intense standoff between Saudi Arabia and Iran eventually boiled over into an intense regional conflict dubbed as the [[Oil Wars (Homefront universe)|'Oil Wars']]. The United States supported Saudi Arabia and its allies with funds, equipment, and even troop deployments. However, it seems that America's commitment waned due to the economic crisis at home, civilian disagreement over the war, and an increasing anti-American sentiment throughout the Middle East. The war dragged on through numerous attempted peace talks before ending in 2016, after the capital of Riyadh was destroyed by Iranian weapons of mass destruction. Over ten million people were killed in Riyadh, which became global news. Saudi Arabia and the Holy Arab Alliance were overwhelmingly defeated by the Islamic Republic of Iran due to the economic and military might of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Iranian airstrikes destroyed most of Saudi Arabia's petroleum industry, including oil wells, pipelines and refineries, and the Saudi economy completely collapsed. Saudi Arabia never recovered from the Oil Wars, as the petroleum industry had been destroyed, the capital of Riyadh having been destroyed by Iranian nuclear weapons, and the world was hit by an severe economic depression. The Islamic Republic of Iran emerged from the Oil Wars as the largest producer of oil and natural gas in the world, the world's largest exporter of oil and natural gas, and the world's foremost recognized global industrial, military, political, economic and energy superpower. As Saudi Arabia and the Holy Arab Alliance were weakened by the Oil Wars, the United States intervened and sent military ground, aerial and naval forces to Saudi Arabia as well as the Persian Gulf in order to maintain stability in the region. As of 2027, over 500,000 U.S. troops were stationed in Saudi Arabia, with most of them close to the Saudi-Iranian border. Category:Nations (Homefront universe) Category:Saudi Arabia (Homefront universe) Category:Superpowers (Homefront universe)